Like many people throughout the United States last weekend, I enjoyed an extended holiday break to celebrate the Fourth of July with my family.
We enjoyed music, barbecue, a walk through the Krohn Conservatory, and a trip to Findlay Market in Cincinnati as we caught up with family members and celebrated our nation’s independence.
One of the highlights of the weekend was attending the Fourth of July Patriotic Pops concert along the riverfront of the Ohio River, east of downtown Cincinnati.
Mist fell early in the evening, but rain held off for a fantastic concert by the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. It was a special event: the concert celebrated the 75th anniversary of the United Service Organization (USO).
Following the concert, the skies lit up with a colorful fireworks display accompanied by musical scores from popular movies, like the James Bond series and Star Wars.
I had a wonderful time at the concert and thoroughly enjoyed the light show in the sky.
Connecting with Customers
When I checked my email messages the next morning, I was pleasantly surprised to find a follow-up email message from the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, asking me:
How did you enjoy Patriotic Pops last night
Now, I’ve received plenty of “thanks for attending our event” email messages. And I’ve crafted dozens of messages myself for events I hosted.
But I can’t remember any time I’ve received an email message from an orchestra so quickly after an event.
It was clear someone paid close attention to creating an email that would encourage concertgoers to read the message.
What stood out for me were the small details, including:
- Timeliness. Cincinnati Pops sent it the morning after the concert, while it was still fresh in my mind. How many times have you received
what did you think of the event?
email messages a week, two weeks, even two months after an event?How do you feel about the event? Do you even remember it? I know I have a hard time remembering the event when so much time has passed. - Clearly identified sender. The message was sent from Cincinnati Pops Orchestra email address, a name I quickly recognized.Many organizations use a sender email address for the president or marketing director, names many people don’t recognize.
- Descriptive subject line. The subject line quickly got to the point by asking how I enjoyed the Patriotic Pops concert the night before.The personalized subject line made it clear what the message was about and what content I could expect in the email message. I had no hesitation opening the message.
- Thanks for attending the event. The first sentence in the message thanked me for attending the event, a nice way to open the message.
- Ask for feedback. The second paragraph invited me to share my feedback by completing a survey.The button to take the survey was prominent, and clearly labeled
Begin Survey.
I’m the type of person who completes surveys, given I know who’s conducting the survey and how the results will be used. The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra explained what they planned to do with the survey. I took it.
- Added incentive to take survey.
For those who needed an extra incentive to complete the survey, the orchestra offered a goodie: a chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card. Nice touch! - Link to upcoming events. The email message ended with a
hope to see you at our upcoming season
with a link to the website page for the 2016-17 season with event listings.Hey, that’s a great way to encourage existing customers to return for concert events, link to the upcoming events page. Don’t force the customer to go search for the events page.
Conclusion
Overall, I was delighted with the email message from Cincinnati Pops. I could tell their design team valued customers’ time by keeping the content concise. As a customer, I was glad it wasn’t a standard thanks message with no personalization.
If it was, I probably would have deleted the message, without reading it completely.
But because it was personalized, timely, and short, I read the message and gladly took the survey. Fingers crossed I might win the gift card!
As someone who’s been designing and creating email messages for over 16 years, I appreciate the effort and care it took to build a message that connected with customers and encouraged them to open and act on the message.
Well done, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra!
